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This article briefly outlines the history of research into Welsh personal names and discusses the importance of Welsh data for general studies of onomastics. To illustrate this importance it also analyses the prehistory of the Venetic anthroponym Uposedos beside its Welsh comparanda. In turn, the data of other Indo-European languages is traditionally used for discussions of the Welsh onomastics, and such an analysis is carried out in the article for Welsh names containing the component (-)dog(-) as in Dogfael, Eldog. The difficult Old Welsh name Saturnbiu alongside similar early Welsh formations is treated from the point of historical linguistics, and this analysis also adduces semantic comparanda from outside the Indo-European world. The importance of extra-linguistic factors for this discussion is paramount and data from various medieval Christian traditions and ancient mythology is used to support the suggested reconstruction. The paper calls (again!) for the urgent necessity of the compilation of a Historical and Comparative Dictionary of Welsh Personal Names. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]